Starting from the evening of the 15th, the battle south of Deaeger entered the "you come and I go" stage.

Although most of the time, the French army was still attacking and the Marines relied on position defense, the small-scale tactical counterattack launched by the Marines using the gap between the attacks of the French army, causing huge trouble for the French army, affecting the attack deployment of the French army, and controlling the development of the war situation.

Until this time, the Fan army did not realize that the main force of the Marine Corps had already invaded Gujibang.

According to relevant information disclosed after the war, as early as the 14th, the senior leaders of the Vatican army had already known that another unit of the Eastern Alliance went south from Barmer to attack Gujibang from the west of Alavalli Ridge. However, at that time, the senior leaders of the Vatican army believed that this was a feint attack, and the purpose was to attract the attention of the Vatican army, and then dispatched troops from Udaipur to intercept and relieve the pressure on Deaeger.

After all, on Trad, it is impossible to pose a threat to the northwest region of the Kingdom of Varo.

The reason why the senior leaders of the Vatican army made this judgment is very simple: hundreds of kilometers south of Balmer is an endless desert, and there is only one extremely simple road. Not to mention providing logistics support for tens of thousands of troops, it would be great to be able to support a brigade-level armored force.

In addition, in the northern part of Gujibang, there are Kachi Worcesterlands.

If the Eastern Alliance aims to sweep the eastern coastal areas and capture big cities like Mengmei, there is no need to go south from Balmer and launch an amphibious landing battle directly. After all, compared with sea transportation, the efficiency of land transportation through the Vanro Desert and the Kachi Swamp is really pitifully low.

The most critical reason is that the Fan army has always believed that the opponent is the Eastern Alliance, at least a mixed force, not the Fifth Land Warfare Division.

Actually, this is normal.

The first to enter the battle, that is, the vanguard of the Fifth Marine Division, which attacked Balmer, was equipped with a lot of main combat equipment that originally belonged to the army, such as the BZ-98 infantry fighting vehicle transported to Kara Port and not delivered to the 17th Armored Division, but the equipment belonged to the Marine Corps, such as amphibious tanks, was relatively few.

In addition, because of fighting in the desert, all the vanguards changed into the army's desert camouflage uniforms.

During the assault on Deaeger, a large number of army's main combat equipment also appeared, such as the "Zhi-18" heavy helicopter and the "Zhi-15" general-purpose helicopter, later there were AL-100A ultra-light howitzer and PH-300B large-caliber rocket launcher, as well as the ZT-99B sent from the empire by the "Yun-15A". The only main combat equipment unique to the Marine Corps is the "Zhi-7W" armed helicopter.

Besides, Balmer and Deaeger are both inland, hundreds of kilometers away from the coastline.

The key is that the 17th Armored Division has been deployed long ago, and most of the combatants are on standby in Kara Port, not far from the front line.

With the 17th Armored Division here, why do you need to use the Marine Corps?

Although in combat deployment, the 17th Armored Division faces the northwest of the Fifth Marine Division, but dispatches several battalions and at most one brigade to perform assault missions, the impact on the main attacking side's actions can basically be ignored, at least there is no need for the Marine Corps to do it on their behalf.

What's more, the combat operations of the assault on Deaeger were mainly targeted in the northwest battlefield, that is, cutting off the ground traffic line between Udaipur and Jaipur, and preventing the main forces deployed in the southern cluster from heading north, so as to concentrate their forces to siege Jaipur.

If you want to say, this is the main task of the 17th Armored Division.

In this way, there is even less reason to let the Fifth Land Warrior Division do it for the sake of the work.

As for the mission of the Fifth Land Warrior Division, according to the judgment of the senior leaders of the Vatican army, after the main force of the 17th Armored Division participated in the war, that is, when the attack on Jaipur, would launch an attack on the core areas of the west coast, especially Mumbai, and occupy several major port cities.

As long as there is a port, the Eastern Alliance will be able to invest in the main force to attack and occupy the southern region.

In fact, this is the first combat plan formulated by Ding Zhennan.

It can be seen that it was only after making this wrong judgment that the top leaders of the Fan army stared at Deaeger and did not take the threat from Trad seriously.

As a result, on the night of the 16th, when the main force of the Fifth Land Force Division began to attack Barenbull, the senior leaders of the Fan army suddenly woke up.

The 2 brigades of the Fifth Land Warrior Division are located outside Barumur, and they are all main combat brigades.

Regardless of whether the top leaders of the Vatican army believed it, Barenbull was attacked and likely to fall before dawn.

The key is that Barenbure's garrison was not prepared at all. Before being attacked, he did not even know that the enemy had arrived outside the city.

In addition, the Marines' offensive was also very fierce. In addition to using artillery fire to open the way, they also dispatched air forces.

Before the Marines entered the city, the Fan army guarding Barumpur was defeated, and even collective escapes were seen in battalions.

However, this is just the beginning.

Just a few hours later, late at night on the 16th, another main force of the Fifth Land Warrior Division appeared on the north bank of Kach Bay.

The troops were less, and there was only one combat brigade, but there were much fewer Fan army here, and there was only one big city worth attacking, namely Gandhitm.

This is a coastal city!

Although it is restricted by terrain, and the average water depth of Kachi Bay is less than 10 meters, and the offshore is densely packed with reefs. Gandhitum does not have a ready-made port and the only small fishing port cannot allow large ships to dock, Kachi Bay itself is a natural sheltered bay, and it is spacious enough to allow hundreds of landing ships and transport ships to anchor them, and then transfer them with small ships such as landing crafts. If not, hovercraft can be used. After all, those reefs hidden under the sea have negligible impact on hovercraft.

Relatively speaking, the Marines are actually preparing to attack southern areas of Gujibang, such as Ahmedabad north of the Bay of Campbell.

As long as the two armies of the Marine Corps are at the city, the Fan army will lose this crucial city.

On the military level alone, Ahmedabad is the big rear of Udaipur.

Geographically, Ahmedabad is the transportation hub center connecting the western coastal areas and the northwest areas, and can be seen as the north gate of the northwest coastal areas.

After taking Ahmedabad, the Eastern coalition could not only go north to siege Udaipur, but also choose to go south to sweep away port cities in coastal areas.

In fact, only by capturing Ahmedabad, can we force hundreds of thousands of Fan troops in Udaipur to surrender.

Don’t forget that the Fan army in Udaipur belongs to the southern faction, and many officers and soldiers come from Gujibang or major cities in the western coastal areas. The key is that the supply of materials for the southern cluster is mainly borne by the southern region, and only the insufficient part is compensated by the northern region.

In other words, the hundreds of thousands of regular troops stationed in Udaipur, the millions of reserve officers and soldiers mobilized, as well as more militiamen, and most of the supplies needed for daily life were provided by the southern region, and almost all passed through Ahmedabad.

Now, it happens to be a critical period for food transportation.

The ripening time of middle rice is November every year. The harvest time in the southern region is generally in early November, so it will be collected and stored in the warehouse in the middle. Including the time spent on dispatching and other work, the collected grain will not be distributed in place until late November.

According to this arrangement, the work of transporting food to the front line will start from late November.

It can be seen that if Ahmedabad fell at this time, all the Fan army in Udaipur would be hungry!

That's why late at night on the 16th, Tigala gave a dead order to the commander-in-chief of the Southern Cluster. Without affecting the combat operations against Deaeger, Ahmedabad must be defended, even if the commander-in-chief needs to fight in person.

But the problem is, this is not easy.

The main force of the southern cluster is in Udaipur, and the elite troops have already advanced north to attack Deaeger, and those who stay in Udaipur are all second-line troops.

The key is that the hundreds of kilometers from Deaogle to Ahmedabad are definitely not a complete road.

In addition, the Fan army stationed in Ahmedabad was less than 50,000, and its combat effectiveness was extremely poor. Even the second-line troops were not considered to be, and they had basically no combat effectiveness.

If you want to say it, there is no decent combat force in the entire Gujibang.

It’s not that Gujibang is not important enough, but that the top leaders of the Fan army have always felt that the Eastern coalition forces are unlikely to directly attack Gujibang.

Relying solely on military strength, the Fan army will definitely not be able to defend Ahmedabad.

There is enough intelligence to prove that the main force of the Fifth Land Warrior Division is in Gujibang, and the three combat brigades fighting on the front line have a force of nearly 20,000. If the artillery brigades that follow the combat brigade and the support brigades that are active in the rear, the total force will not be less than 40,000.

Taking the Boshawan War as the basis, in order to deal with the 40,000 troops of the Liangxia Empire, the Fan army needs to invest at least 500,000 troops!

Unfortunately, there are not so many troops in Gujibang.

That's why, after Tigala issued a death order, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Cluster issued an order to the garrison troops of Gujibang.

All combat troops retreated into the city and distributed weapons such as guns to temporarily recruited militias.

It must be said that this is the only defensive tactic that the Fan army can adopt.

Almost the entire territory of Gujibang is on the coastal plains, and there is no natural danger to defend. Even the mountainous areas to the north and west are not an insurmountable obstacle in the face of modern armored forces. It is obvious that for the Fan army, which basically has no heavy equipment, the field battle will undoubtedly be defeated.

If you want to say, densely packed towns, especially several super-large cities, are the natural dangers that the Fan army can rely on.

Practical combat has long proved that urban warfare is a nightmare for all armies, and even a powerful imperial army may not be able to gain advantage in urban warfare.

In addition, super-large cities with a population of more than 5 million are also cemeteries for ground troops.

It is precisely because in the Posa Bay War, the Imperial Army was exploring and summarizing the experience of urban warfare and looking for tactics to deal with and overcome urban warfare problems.

Unfortunately, all the summarized experience points to one point: avoid urban warfare as much as possible.

According to the combat experience in Posa Bay and the mainland battlefield, no matter how elite ground troops are, they will not have good results as long as they enter the city. For example, in the late stage of the Posa Bay War, the powerful 7th Armored Division suffered many hardships in the city, and in the end they simply avoided the city guarded by the enemy. If they had to be occupied, they would spend a lot of time in preparation, including long-term bombing and artillery attacks.

In fact, this is also the key reason why the Imperial Army has been avoiding attacking big cities on several major battlefields.

Of course, this is also the most worrying issue for Ding Zhennan.

To this end, Ding Zhennan repeatedly reminded Hou Chensheng that if the Fan army relied on the big cities to defend, it would siege and not attack, and block it by controlling the roads and railways. In order to attract Hou Chensheng's attention, or to let Hou Chensheng act according to the order, Ding Zhennan also emphasized one thing. After the 17th Armored Division came on the field, it would launch an amphibious landing operation on the east coast of the Fanluo Kingdom according to the original plan.

The implication is that if the Fifth Land Warrior Division is trapped in Gujibang, it will only be possible to arrange other troops to be responsible for the main attack.

As for the combat operations on the West Coast, even if the 17th Armored Division does not stop after the 17th Armored Division comes on the field, its importance will be greatly reduced.

In short, if you are willing to make soy sauce, you can do whatever you want.

Of course, in order to make Hou Chensheng believe that this is not a joke, Ding Zhennan approved the combat operation code-named "Rampage" in the early morning of the 17th.

That's right, it is the combat operation where the 17th Armored Division acts as the main force and advances towards Jaipur.

If you want to say it, the 17th Armored Division has already sharpened its swords.

On the night of the 14th, Fu Weimin went to Sukur's front-line command and issued the combat plan to the commander at the battalion level as planned.

Don’t forget that according to Ding Zhennan’s plan, an attack will be launched as early as the 15th.

Even if combat troops at all levels are ready for combat, they need to be several hours in advance to let the frontline commanders grasp the specific task allocation and figure out what they should do.

Unfortunately, he failed to receive the combat order issued by Ding Zhennan in the early morning of the 15th.

In the next two days, the 17th Armored Division, nearly 50,000 officers and soldiers who came down from Weimin, were all waiting for the combat order issued by Ding Zhennan.

It must be said that watching the Fifth Land Warrior Division kill the Fan soldiers, the officers and soldiers of the 17th Armored Division were all anxious.

It seems that if I dragged it for a few more days, I wouldn't have anything to do with the Seventeenth Armored Division.

Of course, in the past two days, Fu Weimin organized several combat meetings at the front line command center, saying that he wanted to discuss combat operations with the battlefield commanders, but in fact, it was to control grassroots officers and find some things for these young and strong soldiers who were very angry to do.

If these officers were really put back to the army, there would be no trouble.

As for the combat meeting, it was indeed discussed and resolved some issues that had not been considered or were not valued before, such as the coordination and cooperation of troops at all levels.

The key is that all combat troops took this opportunity to complete the mobilization.

Nearly 50,000 officers and soldiers were all working hard, just waiting for the command to order!

That's why less than 4 hours after Dingzhen issued an order in the south, that is, at 3 a.m. on the 17th, the vanguard of the 17th Armored Division crossed the border west of Sukur and attacked the territory of the Vanluo Kingdom. At the fastest field marching speed of 30 kilometers per hour, it had great strategic value and was killed by the Vanish army, who was boasted by the Vanish army as the number one military center on the western border.

At this point, large-scale combat operations in the Northwest War Zone began.
Chapter completed!